The Cold War began after WWII as tensions rose between the US and Soviet Union over the fate of Eastern Europe. The Soviets set up communist governments while the US enacted the Truman Doctrine and Marshall Plan to provide aid against communism. Berlin became divided and the Soviets blockaded West Berlin, leading to the Berlin Airlift. NATO and the Warsaw Pact formed opposing military alliances in Europe. An arms race developed as both sides raced to build nuclear weapons. The Berlin Wall was ultimately constructed in 1961 to stop the flow of East German refugees to the West.

1. THE COLD WAR BEGINS
Chapter 18 Section 1
Jason M. Hauck

2. I. Balance of Power After World War II
A. After WWII, the differences between the United
States and the Soviet Union came to the front.
1. Stalin still feared the capitalist West, and Western leaders
still had a great fear of communism.
B. The Soviet Union was not prepared to give up its
control of Eastern Europe after Germany’s defeat.
1. American leaders weren’t willing to give up the power
prestige the United States had gained.
2. Suspicious of each other’s motives, the United States and
the Soviet Union soon became rivals.

3. C.The United States and
Great Britain believed
that the liberated
nations of Eastern
Europe should freely
determine their own
governments.
1. Stalin, however, fearful
that these nations would
become anti-Soviet.
a. The Soviet army stayed in
the conquered areas and set
up pro-Soviet regimes in
Poland, Romania, Bulgaria,
and Hungary.

4. D.A civil war in Greece created another area of
conflict between the superpowers.
1. The Communist People’s Liberation Army and anti-
communist forces supported by Great Britain fought for
control of Greece in 1946.
2. Britain will withdraw its aid from Greece.
E. President Harry S. Truman responded with the
Truman Doctrine.
1. This doctrine said that the United States would provide
money to countries that were threatened by communist
expansion.
a. Domino Theory.

6. F. The Marshall Plan or European Recovery Program was
proposed in June 1947.
1. General George C. Marshall, U.S. secretary of state, believed that
communism was only successful in countries that had economic
problems.
2. U.S. gave $13 billion to rebuild war torn Europe.
G. The Marshall Plan did not intend to exclude the Soviet
Union or its Eastern European satellite states.
1. The Soviets saw the Marshall Plan as an attempt to buy the support
of the smaller European countries.
H. In 1949 the Soviet Union responded to the Marshall Plan
by founding the Council for Mutual Economic Assistance
(COMECON).
1. COMECON failed, however, because the Soviet Union was unable to
provide much financial aid.

8. I. By 1947 a policy of containment to keep communism
within its existing boundaries was developed.
J. The Allied Powers had divided Germany into four zones,
each occupied by one of the Allies.
1. The city of Berlin, located deep inside the Soviet zone, was also
divided into four zones.

9. K. The foreign ministers of the four occupying powers met
repeatedly in an attempt to arrive at a final peace treaty
with Germany but had little success.
1. Great Britain, France, and the United States gradually began to
merge their zones economically.
a. By February 1948, plans were developed to unify the three Western
sections of Germany (and Berlin) and create a West German government.

10. L. The Soviets reacted with a blockade of West Berlin.
1. Food and supplies could no longer get through to the 2.5 million
people in these zones.
2. The Russians hoped to secure economic control of all Berlin and
force the Western powers to halt the creation of a separate West
German state.
M.Berlin Airlift—supplies would be flown in by American and
British airplanes.
1. For more than 10 months, more than 200,000 flights carried 2.3
million tons of supplies.
2. The Soviets, also not wanting war, finally gave in and lifted the
blockade in May 1949.
N. The blockade of Berlin increased tensions between the
United States and the Soviet Union.
1. In September 1949, the Federal Republic of Germany, or West
Germany, was created.
2. Soviets responded by setting up the German Democratic Republic.

12. II. The Spread of the Cold War
A. In 1949 the Cold War spread from Europe to the rest of
the world.
1. The victory of the Chinese Communists in the Chinese civil war
created a new Communist regime and strengthened fears in the
United States about the spread of communism.
B. The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) was
formed in April 1949.
1. They agreed to provide mutual help if any one of them was
attacked.
C. In 1955 the Soviet Union formed a military alliance known
as the Warsaw Pact.
1. Europe was once again divided into hostile alliance systems, just as it
had been before World War I.

13. NATO
Countries
Belgium
Canada
Denmark
France
Iceland
Italy
Luxembourg
Netherlands
Norway
Portugal
United
Kingdom
United States
Warsaw Pact Countries
Albania
Bulgaria
Czechoslovakia
GDR
Hungary
Poland
Romania
U.S.S.R

14. D.New military alliances spread to the rest of the
world after the United States became involved in
the Korean War.
1. The war began in 1950 as an attempt by the Communist
government of North Korea, which was allied with the
Soviet Union, to take over South Korea.
2. The Korean War confirmed American fears of communist
expansion.
3. More determined than ever to contain Soviet power, the
United States extended its military alliances around the
world.
a. By the mid-1950s, the United States was in military alliances with
42 states around the world.

15. E. By the mid-1950s, the United States and the Soviet Union
had become involved in a growing arms race.
F. The Soviet Union had set off its first atomic bomb in 1949.
1. In the early 1950s, the Soviet Union and the United States developed
the deadlier hydrogen bomb.
2. By the late-1950s, both had intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs),
which made them capable of sending bombs anywhere.
G. The United States and the Soviet Union now worked to
build up stockpiles of nuclear weapons.
1. The search for security soon took the form of deterrence.
a. This policy held that huge arsenals of nuclear weapons on both sides
prevented war.

17. H. In 1957 the Soviets sent Sputnik I, the first human-made
space satellite, to orbit Earth.
1. The U.S. feared that there was a "missile gap" between the United
States and the Soviet Union.

18. I. Nikita Khrushchev, who
emerged as the new leader
of the Soviet Union in 1955.
1. He realized the need to stop the
flow of refugees from East
Germany through West Berlin.
2. In August 1961, the East German
government began to build a
wall separating West Berlin from
East Berlin.
a. Eventually it became a massive
concrete block wall 15 feet high
topped with barbed wire.
b. Hundreds of machine-gun
watchtowers lined the wall, which
stretched 28 miles through the
city.
c. The Berlin Wall became a striking
symbol of the division between
the two superpowers.

19. THE BERLIN WALL IN 1983